Neoclassicism is characterized by order, restraint, righteousness, and proper forms of behavior. The movement coincided with the "Age of Reason." The neoclassicists looked to the ancient literary works and classics for inspiration. The term "neoclassical" means "new classical." They wanted to use the classical works as a basis for their artistic movement. Neoclassicism overlaps with Augustan literature and the movements are sometimes said to be the same. Alexander Pope is perhaps the most famous English writer of the Neoclassical period. His works "Essay on Man" and "Essay on Criticism" are significant works of the movement. Both of these works are guides. For instance, his "Essay on Criticism" contains rules on how to judge poetry. Order, restraint, and classical rules are all staples of Neoclassicism.
Romantic literature is a reaction to the strict rules of what poetry should be and how it should be judged. Romantic poetry focused on individual...
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experience and expression. In other words, whereas the neoclassical writers focused on order and how literature should be, the Romantic movement encouraged the individual to choose for him/herself. As a result, Romantic writers embraced emotion, as opposed to the neoclassical writers who focused on restraint. The Romantic movement is often cited as the birth of Modern literature because, in celebrating individual experience and expression, it overtly broke the rules and freed up what poetry and literature could be. Good examples of Romantic works are Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" (an individual contemplation of nostalgia and nature) and Coleridge's "Kubla Khan," (an expressive dream vision).
How does romanticism differ from neoclassicism?
Romanticism developed primarily as a reaction to the neoclassical or Augustan movement in literature, and should be read as a rebellion against many of the neoclassical strictures.
First, neoclassicists view themselves as the heirs of the past, carrying forward the great traditions of classical antiquity and adapting them to present use. They see the role of the writer or artist as one of cultural transmission and craftsmanship, working within a society and expressing its ideals. In the English Augustan poets, this notion is associated with a religious one, that the writer or artist lives in a divinely ordered world, and sees and expresses its providential, harmonious, and symmetrical nature, as expressed for example, in Pope's statement:
Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r, ..
All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee; ...
All discord, harmony not understood, ...
Romantics, on the other hand, saw the artist as a solitary individual, rebelling against and critiquing society and religion. Rather than admiring order and symmetry, they preferred untamed nature, and rather than imitating the disciplined craftsmanship of antiquity, they emphasized spontaneous expression of emotion, often using irregular verse forms, as opposed to the heroic couplet. Their vision was a deeply personal one, focused on the experience of the sensitive individual as opposed to traditional heroic epics.
While the Augustans were masters of satire, epic, and verse essays, the Romantics (with the exception of Byron, whose work bridges the divide between the two schools) excelled at more lyrical and personal works.